


Welcome Home.

by tiedye_hippie



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bromance, Character Analysis, Character Development, Character Psyche, DSOD, Dark Side of Dimensions, Friendship, Other, Post-Dark Side Of Dimensions, YGO DM, post-dsod
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 08:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18465316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiedye_hippie/pseuds/tiedye_hippie
Summary: Welcome to the ending of Dark Side, we all needed and deserved...Please enjoy this piece about friendship as it took me 3 exact years to write and I only finished it this morning at 2 AM. I was pretty salty with the end of Dark Side of Dimensions (like the rest of the world it seemed) - as Seto left Mokuba to go chase shadows. So I wrote what I wanted to happen in the grand scheme of things. I disliked the regression of Seto's character development throughout the entire movie and forced my own character development for him, so my baby could finally have some god damn closure.To also shed some light, this is pretty much the start of my own Yu-Gi-Oh universe. I have been writing the same Yu-Gi-Oh story for like 8 years now and this ties perfectly into how things all come to be. With this, I can create the world I want for my beloved characters and I like that a lot.





	Welcome Home.

The pharaoh’s realm in the afterlife was nothing like the grim stigma that death seemed to bring when it knocked at the door. If this is what Hell looked like, Seto was ready to sign a contract to sell his soul to whatever God would take it so he could stay there. Yet, in the back of his mind, he knew he couldn't do that. He had a whole other world to control - to keep under his thumb so he could rule it.   
  
Under the Egyptian sun, sitting within the Palace oasis, Seto sat under a terrace - in silence. The golden sun was seeping through his satin turtle neck. Fingers gracing his skin with little sighs of happiness against his spine. He wasn't one to sit beneath the blaring sun, but he made a certain exception as he sat in the center garden. When he spent the countless hours within the garden laced with pools of Nile water lilies and the array of pottery that held flowers from distant lands - he did not feel the heat nor did he feel a chill. The smell of jasmine and burning sands took him to a place he hadn't really felt before. A relaxed heaven of white light in his mind that actually made it  **purely silent**  for once.

With arms intertwined in a knot over his chest, Seto leaned against a table with eyes closed. He was enjoying the subtle hum that his mind made when there wasn't voices yelling at him in a million directions. For about the twentieth time that unknown day, Seto sighed through his entire body, releasing whatever his body was keeping that was deemed bad to create more room for the good.   
  
Seto then groaned some, as he rolled his neck against the tender warmth that was building in the place between his stiff shoulders and limp neck. He was beginning to think that he could sit there forever and a day, til he heard a shuffle beside him that disrupted his thoughts. Opening his eyes, he peered over his shoulder to find Atem settling himself in the opposite chair holding what seemed to be a cup of tea. Atem huffed lightly as he let his body melt with the seat he fell into, and it wasn't til Atem took the first sip of his tea that he realized Seto was looking at him.   
  
Looking over his cup, the steam ever slightly rising in the desert air, he grinned at Seto. "I didn't mean to wake you."   
  
Seto gave a sarcastic roll of his eyes as he looked away from Atem, gazing towards the rolling desert that laid so endlessly beyond the Palace walls. Within the beyond, laid a golden castle so grand he wondered what he would have to do to get into a place like that. Heat waves made it dance in his eyes and he had to squint ever so slightly to get it to stand still, just so he could make out the ornate rounded roofs and pillars of gems. "I wasn't sleeping."  
  
Atem then hummed as if he was to hear what Seto had proclaimed and he placed his cup of tea on the stone table. "Enjoying the quiet then?"

Biting his lip as the word 'quiet' created a light filled void deep within his mind, Seto swallowed against the eternal bliss that built in his bones all the while he was sitting in his chair. He cleared his throat quickly and looked away from the desert back to Atem who was smiling ever so slightly. "If you knew me like you claim, you would know the answer to that question."  
  
Atem chuckled at the snarky remark and shook his head. He knew the answer, that was definitely certain. Reaching for his cup of tea, Atem allowed the harmony that Seto relished in to return slowly as Seto traveled back to that place of wonder in his mind.

 _\-----_  
  
_Seto's Life-points: 450_  
Atem's Life-points: 600  
  
**"You're so predictable, Kaiba!"**    
  
Echoing throughout the temple, the gold pharaohs voice bellowed deep into the shadows that hung between the burning torches. Atem's growing smirk curled into something vicious that began to spew laughter of joy. "So predictable it will be the end of you."

In the rush of his blood rolling from his heart into his fingertips, Atem revealed his downward Magic Card that would enhance his Dark Magicians power tenfold. Making his Dark Magician unstoppable and Seto's Blue Eyes White Dragon a measly pawn of destruction would only cause Seto's life-points to drop to zero in the process.

Atem’s chest heaved with pride and the prize of winning flashed before his eyes.  ** _"Dark Magician!!! End this!!!"_**

An aura rich for an envious king enveloped the Dark Magician and when revealed in the purple light that shone from the end of his staff, the Dark Magician's own smirk filled his attack as he lunged forward to attack Blue Eyes.   
  
Much to the dismay that was headed his way, Seto’s hung head hid his eyes from the Dark Magician, who was shifting across the dueling field and ready to end a Blue Eyes screeching in defense.   
  
But his head was not hung in defeat,  _oh no_.   
  
Suddenly, Atem felt the pride drain from his body as he noticed Seto's shoulders beginning to shake. Atem cursed himself as Seto threw his head back in manic laughter that only came when Seto wasn't done spilling blood. 

"You're not the only predictable one, Atem!" Seto purred as the mania took over his face and created a twisted sneer that gave Atem chills.  ** _"I have been waiting this moment!!!"_**

Seto threw his whole body into the reveal of his face down card.  A downwards Trap Card that attached a deathly plague to those that crossed it, engulfed Dark Magician, making that strong mage cough death’s blood-curdling cry.

"Enjoy your Magician choking to death!” The euphoria that filled Seto as he watched the Magician deteriorate before him, made Seto’s voice shake in rare happiness. His seething demons and their nasty claws made Seto stand tall as they sent ice cold shivers up his spine, driving him to throw a fist out in victory and slap the air with its thrust. “Also draining all of your life points in the process!"

Atem grimaced against the feeling of defeat, as he watched his Dark Magician throw himself towards certain death. A dark cloud that beckoned the call of Hade’s blessings, crept towards Atem as Dark Magician took its final attack. Before the poison took him, Atem watched his weakened Magician and a Blue Eyes come together in a hurdle, only to burst into nothingness.

_Seto's Life-points: 0  
Atem's Life-points: 0_

Within the space and time, in an afterlife that bent the reality of sorrowful truths and deplorable lies, the two stared at each other in the dim lit darkness. Nothing stood between them except dissipating pride and a wallow of onset self-pity. The silence that forced time to come to a still, echoed the sharp pops of fire that spewed from the hearths around them.

Atem was the first to pull his eyes away, clenching a fist behind him so he could push against his spine just to disrupt the feelings of disaster. It wasn’t until he let his fingers roll out of the grip on his invisible crown of games, that he let an upturned scowl come to him. "A tie... How am I not surprised after you broke into the afterlife to duel me...?"

Still stunned, Seto felt rage fall away. The air around him hummed in his ears with a nauseating ring. The space in his mind between regret and fear started to fill with a chemical that hardly graced him with its presence. Those dark ropes of his past that held him down, finally slithered away allowing him to take a breath of freedom.

"Kaiba, you know you're a duelist just as great as me. Why go chasing fantasies?" Atem’s voice echoed softly, bouncing off the sandstone walls until it disappeared into just a thought.

What was the answer? Something selfish, of course. Something that his pride didn’t want to admit. Something that a teen storming through life would never come to terms with because the world was his and his alone. Yet, what the voices were telling Seto could mean a release from all the demons telling him he was worthless. That it was no longer something to fight against. Maybe it didn’t need to be his – it just needed to be true for him to let that crown fall out of reach.

"I wanted to be certain..." An infrequent chuckle escaped from Seto, as he hung his head away from all the uncertainties and settling reality.

There was something different in the air. It made Atem shake his head with a couple of tearing blinks. There was a calm sea in front of him. It was no longer a storm that fumed in an anger caused by past and present memories of betrayal. "Take it as a victory then. That you proved to yourself that you're just as great as I am...” Atem smiled at the truth, “Have some closure, Kaiba."

Seto nodded, lifting himself once more into a proud stance, but rolling his shoulders away from the anxieties that clung to his neck and strangled him on the daily. "Maybe I will..."  
  
\-----

Time had slipped into dawn, where light breezes blew in from the deserts and created a comfortable chill that weaved around Seto's bangs and settled on his forehead. In the deepening skies above, little bright light fairies came out to play. They gravitated towards one another, crashing together into one just to burst into many more, scattering along the desert and into the atmosphere. Seto ran a soft hand through his bangs, grazing his fingertips over the cooled skin, while his deep concentration was on the Duel Monster cards lying about on the table. A wince traveled up his throat but got caught by his lips, and turned into a scowl. Atem and Seto strategized between the two of them. Throwing random moves at each other and seeing how the other would react - and Seto was at a loss. Seto's eyes shifted frantically from his hand, to the cards on the table and back to his hand. The answers he was demanding in his head were not coming to him in neon lights. He was about to grunt in frustration when he drew a new card and it gave answers to him he was longing for in the pits of his stomach.  
  
The new grunt Seto put forth in satisfaction, caused Atem to look up from his hand and watch Seto play his move out without words. The brimming fairies and their many splashing colors, lit up the cards when they crashed, creating Seto’s play a show of the greats. Atem watched it dance in front of him methodically as Seto brought down two of Atem's monsters and negated the lying down trap card that Atem was hiding on the field. Atem's mouth fluttered open and he went to sigh, but it got caught in his throat. Instead, he sucked in his bottom lip and lightly pounded his fist against the edge of the table. "Damn... Impressive..."  
  
As Atem's eyes replayed the move in his memory, Seto took the time to celebrate to himself. Throwing his hands up in the air ever so slightly, Seto started to rock with his waist and bit his lower lip in the process.   
  
When Atem huffed in a tiny defeat and looked up with eyes sunken, he did a double take, catching Seto dancing to himself. A tiny glare furrowed into his brow, "Oh, don't gloat so soon!"  
  
Seto danced a tiny bit more, knowing it was annoying Atem in the process, until he threw his fists to the side and finished the silent victory. The sun finally settled behind the dunes of gold and the torches around them began to glow upon their table enough for them to see. Seto chuckled to himself as Atem then proclaimed he was going to do something better and Seto had better prepare for it.  
  
This is what they had - a friendship that challenged the other to do better and greater things than before. That is why Seto did what he had to, to have one more moment of it but without his usual denial. Seto didn't get to say goodbye. He didn't get his chance to make sure, for certain, there wasn't something he was missing.  
  
Now, Seto could accept it. He could stop obsessing about a dead pharaoh who was better than he was. He didn't have to chase fantasies and shadows that Atem told him he was going after blindly.  
  
They were equals. They were friends. The best of friends.  
  
Flickering around them, sprites spit from the fire and swayed in the darkness warming the light between the two of them. Seto watched Atem from across the table, but within his heart, was close enough to see what exactly he was doing. It was then, with a clench of his jaw and a sudden dread of realization, that Seto knew he did not belong there any longer.  
  
He found what he was looking for - he found the happiness he's always wanted. The sweet peace that would grace his heart and release him from the torture he ensued day by day.  
  
Through the clenched jaw, Seto breathed out unsteady. He placed his hand of cards onto the table and Atem looked up from his play to see Seto lean back in his chair as if the world had stopped for him. "I have to go..."  
  
That's all Seto had to say within palace walls to make them grow cold. Atem was dreading the moment he would no longer have the company of a friend, but he knew it was coming. Over the time Seto had sat around in the afterlife with him, he could see Seto changing and soon there would be nothing keeping Seto in his realm. Atem's posture fell as the words hit his ears and he placed his own hand on the table. "I was starting to wonder when you were going to leave. You've been here for quite a while," His eyes then traveled back to the figure that was slouching in his chair and Atem threw him a soft regard of reassurance. "I didn't know how much longer you'd sit here and stare into the desert as if you're searching for something."  
  
Seto's eyes met Atem's and he shook his head, "I found what I was searching for. I just wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet as long as I could."  
  
Atem nodded with a smile and said nothing in response. There were no words for him to find anyhow.  
  
Without another word or even a whisper to the shadows that glimmered in between the moon beams and starlit children, the two bodies broke from their statues to make their way towards the temple. Wandering down squared hallways and spiritless rooms, the torches lit their steps but darkened behind them as if giving in to the inevitable loneliness that would come suit as one would leave the other alone for the eternity he chose to keep. The temple was consumed with a darkness that brought a stagnant pale air as the large doors slowly opened for them when they reached their destination. A single step into the abysmal depth where the Gods could hear every forced hush and curse, the scattered hearths puffed in flames, emitting a warmth that was much needed.  
  
Two ghosts, the once great grandson of Horus and the abused Trillionair, shuffled their feet in the awkward silence that the Gods were reading through with their smirks. Atem watched Seto closely, holding onto the last bits of Seto’s company he had left. Chains were wrapping around his chest, and as much as Atem was a master of breaking free of those weighing pains, this time they just kept building. Atem took a deep inhale in hopes to break the chains that were heavy against his heart but as he was going to let it all out, Seto breathed out harshly and threw a look at Atem signaling the worst. 

"You'll come back?" Atem's voice echoed in the hall.  
  
The question of time burned Seto's ears. When exactly would it happen? He wasn't very sure. For a millisecond, Seto furrowed his brows and looked into the darkness with question shaping his face in a light worry. He breathed out through nose and finally shrugged sluggishly. "When I further the creation of the VR to make it more steady," The half-assed answer wasn't very certain of itself just like Seto. The shadows could feel it as they skittered away from the glowing flames the hearths threw onto the ground, "I'd also like to harness the power of that weird cube some more…" All the same, there was truth in Seto’s words.

"You've changed."

"Pardon?" Seto tore his fixated gaze upon the hearths back to Atem.

"You changed… from the time you've barged into the afterlife demanding a duel… to now.” Atem’s voice was the sincerest it had been. It reached out and gripped Seto’s heart, making his chest burn in a questioning stillness. “You seem at peace."

"Maybe I am." Seto stared blankly.

"Good, it worked then…" Atem grinned. "Safe travels, Kaiba. Until next time…"

Without much thought, Seto turned towards the large stone doors in the wide-open temple he first entered through when all he felt was confusion and deceit. Now it didn’t feel like he was running away from anything. He was ready to return to a place, in the new light he possessed. After some steps that echoed through the hall, Seto stared into a blinding white light that led to a place he could finally call home.

Watching him go, all Atem could do was let the beam of content be known. He was proud of his friend. He was happy that there was less turmoil in him that caused him dithering pain. Atem wondered how Seto’s life would pan out now. Would he return to being the hard-ass trillionair? Would he find solace in the days to come? Atem took a deep breath to strengthen his wishes and watched them flitter into the world as he breathed out. As Seto approached the doors more closely, Atem finally turned away, letting his friend leave peacefully.

"Atem," Seto’s voice cracked as he called out behind Atem. Atem twisted back as he was ascending the stairs into his gardens of heaven, trying to return to the afterlife of tranquility. Standing in the large doorway, blinding light surrounding his very being, Atem could see the brilliant smile that Seto gave him. "Thank you."

No second longer, Seto was gone.

\--------

Back on Earth, a place where most wouldn't like to be, Domino City was just fine that day. Moving through the notions of the norm, nothing was suspected to be any different. Mokuba sat in his office, reading over some drab report that he didn't really care much about, but he told himself he had to read it anyways. He leaned back in his desk chair, making it swivel on the hinges, so that he was suspended on an angle and his feet were no longer on the ground. As he shifted into a more comfortable position, he felt sleep whispering in his ears and he was tempted to follow it, until his secretary burst through his office door giving him a fright.  
  
"Becca! What the fuck?! Why didn't you knock?!" The young Kaiba had developed a mouth pretty foul, but twas to be suspected as time grew him into ages were hormones took over and the general 'Fuck this! Fuck that!' attitude settled in.   
  
As he jumped, causing his chair to buckle below him, his poor secretary Becca jumped in unison when she realized her mistake. Under the darker tones of her cheeks, the embarrassment rushed forward making her warm and created a light blush hardly noticeable. She began to fidget uncontrollably and she took hold of a small locket of coarse natural hair so she could twirl it around her finger. "I'm sorry, Mokuba, but-bu-but!"  
  
"But what?!?" Mokuba wasn't one to get angry quick. In fact, he had a saint-like threshold and him snapping at her would be shocking to anyone who could hear. Under the special circumstance however, being startled was not his strong suit. It was no wonder he acted the way he did, with wide eyes and a mouth fallen to the floor.   
  
When Mokuba cut her off from her obvious stuttering, a shiver ran down Becca's spine. She had heard rumors of the oldest Kaiba having a temper but never thought that Mokuba could have it in his bones. Just this once, she could see the Kaiba anger in his eyes and it did not sparkle her pretty. Looking to the floor unpleasantly, her shoulders fell and felt the need to cower into the farthest corner. "The light is on, sir... It's green..."  
  
It was then when Mokuba's worlds crumbled around him and he returned to the child he once was. The startled anger drained from his eyes and he placed the report down onto his desk. "He's back..."

\----------

 _"Good morning, Mr. Kaiba."_  
  
The waves of dreary headaches and eternal sleep pulled Seto in and out as his eyes tried to focus on the metal plated ceiling. The pounding against his temples made little white stars dance in his vision and as the synthetic light hit those ocean blues, he squeezed them shut as it pierced his skull with a sledgehammer. “ _Take it easy getting up. It will be a long process to begin with, so there is no need to rush it."_ There was the women robotically speaking with a British accent once again. It was tantalizing and smoothing to his senses that seemed screwed and deteriorated.   
  
"Mother fu-." The poison vat inside Seto was drowning his stomach and filling his lungs with heavy lead. The aches against his weakened scalp were setting him in a motion that was making him sick. He could taste the acid deep in his throat and it was so dry Seto's voice cracked under pressure and he coughed something horrid. 

_"Like I said, there is no need to rush the waking up process. You should rest and let yourself regain some strength."_

Her voice was coming at him in all directions. Bouncing off the metal walls and causing his ears to reverberate. Bringing his hands up to cover his eyes, he felt a light tug on his low forearm and a sharp sensation against his muscle. While wincing in a light pain, his eyes shot open to focus on an IV protruding from his arm and invading his skin with the contents of a clear liquid meth that was usually for the dying. Staring in disbelief, he began to pick at the IV with his limp fingers. The invasion it was causing on his mind was making it run off in a thousand directions and he couldn't tell which screaming voice was the right one to listen to. Peeling the medical tape gently from his arm, twitching his eye in the process as the skin was slightly being lifted from the adhesive, Seto heard a couple of light beeps in the background.   
  
The mechanical voice hummed, letting shivers rise in the plates of his spine.  _"You're heart rate is rising... Is there something wrong? Do you feel pain anywhere?"_  The melancholy ticking of her tongue that followed her concern let Seto pull the rest of the tape off his arm and sigh that the restriction was free. 

Seto opened his mouth to speak, only to have his voice get caught against the rocks that built up in the barren deserts that formed in his throat. Trying to clear his throat as he removed the IV slowly from his arm, it instantly turned into a raging cough making his whole body thrash in the motions. Seto's torso curled inside itself as his insides lurched out of their respected spots and slammed back into place with a horrible rud. Groaning a curse or two, Seto threw the IV aside and let his body curve back into the pod letting his body melt with the cool metal. "Who are you?" His voice worked it's way through the stones but crackled in every way possible as they tumbled when he spoke. 

_"You can call me Airlie. I am the AI system your brother had placed inside the spaceship to watch over your health while you were... away."_

Nothing she said made sense to him. With a needle no longer digging into his body and tearing at his muscle, Seto finally brought his hands over his eyes and rubbed them clear of the foggy discrepancies with stiff fingers. "AI system... I didn't need an AI system to watch me… I was gone for a week." Or that’s what Seto thought it was. He counted 7 nights. Letting his hands fall from his face, the single movement alone made him feel woozy and sleep beckoned him loudly as his hands created a loud thud against the pod as they fell away.

Airlie, this new AI system that he did not create, hummed a tune that he did not like. It caused him to search the metal cabin for a single sign of her importance, but found only a singular darkness that was pushed away by the glow from his VR pod. Seto tried to pull himself up on the side of the vessel, but his spine wretched itself against the seat causing Seto to breath out a silent gasp of agony.

_"On the contraire, Mr. Kaiba, it was very important that I watch over your forced torpor state."_

"Tro-tropor state?!" There was no time to think against the frantic panic that filled him. Only time to react in a way of flight, trying to get away from the terror that came with such knowledge. Seto threw himself upwards, in the fear that filled every curve of his body and he felt the venom of his stomach travel upwards, almost completely discharging through his mouth and all over his lap.

_"Please be careful, Mr. Kaiba."_

"Tell me right now why I was in forced into hibernation, this instant!" It couldn’t be happening. Seto didn’t want to listen to the way his body cried and the weeping anxiety that told him he made a rotten error.

There was hesitation in the air, but Airlie cleared her nonexistent throat before saying the one thing that could make Seto’s world fall apart at the seams and reveal a Hell he wasn’t ready to come back to. _"I'm sorry to tell you like this, Mr. Kaiba, but you were not gone for a mere week... You were gone for two years."_

Seto’s weakened heart fell through the cavities in his chest, exploded out and fell upon the metaphorical floor. He couldn’t breathe against the loss of two years. It was making the screaming voices always telling him he was wrong, that for once they were right. He fucked up. Make them stop. It was a lie. "Two years...?"

_"I'm very sorry..."_

Forcing the mysterious liquid in his stomach down and trying really hard to not hurt himself in the process, Seto threw himself out of his pod and attempted to stand on his feet. The gravity of the universe only continued to tell him things he didn’t want to hear. He thrashed against the faintness in his body and planted his feet against the cold metal floor. "I need to get out of here."

_"Mr. Kaiba, please. I advise that you don't-."_

"Shut up!” Every notion in him, screamed out loudly and in doing so, made Seto fold through the waist. Beginning to walk, or attempting to, Seto tripped over himself towards the large elevator doors, trying to regain a balance that floated away from him as he laid waste in the VR pod all alone for two years. “I need to see my brother..."

He tried so hard, but still slipped over his fumbling feet, falling onto his hands with a crushing thud. There was a sound of pity that floated through the room and it made Seto’s spine fold downwards, wanting to crash into the metal floor, only to kill him in the process for how useless he had become. With the clicking of her tongue, Airlie controlled the spacecraft to eject a robotic mechanical arm out from the wall beside him. _"Hold still..."_

A sudden tiny stab of cold metallic discomfort entered his shivering arm, one that could hardly hold him off the floor. Seto threw his head over to see the remaining seconds of this robot pricking him with a syringe of whatever god send medicine he did not authorize to receive. "Excuse you!" He spat and used that anger to get him back to his feet, throwing himself towards the wall so he could use it as leverage to stay upright.

 _"No, shut up."_ Seto’s spine crashed against the metal wall and he gasped at both the murderous death that wanted to take him and her nonchalant retort. _"You will thank me for that later."_

Seto breathed heavily against the pounding nervousness that was taking his breath away by drowning him. He stared into the non-reflective grounds of his space station, finding nothing but an emptiness that was starting to consume him. There were only the small orange LED security lights that glowed amidst the dark matter of the atmosphere, which decided to leak into his space while his mind was in a paradise, that turned out to be no good for him but just as blissfully peaceful.

Did Mokuba cut most of the power to the station? Was that why nothing was lighting up as he moved? Two years… it couldn’t have been two years? How could he do that to his little brother? What did Seto miss? What had Mokuba endured without him by his side? His little brother was alone and he wasn’t there to protect him. The dread that squeezed his throat shut and made him strain his shoulders forward in protest, made him cry out in an inaudible struggle of terror. Beside him, the doors to the elevator back down to Earth, opened with a shush of air finally unblocking his path. In the reigning fright of the thousand questions that smothered him in yet another dark loathing, Seto threw his body into the elevator chair. He practically fell apart as he hit the chair, but managed to get the seat straps around his shoulders. He didn’t buckle himself in time for the doors to shut and air lock the chamber. In seconds, the momentum of the elevator throttled itself back down to the Earth’s surface.

Seto could hardly feel the pressure of the stratosphere crushing his insides into a million pieces and forcing them to be stars in the sky. This is not what bothered Seto. This is not what made him gag. No, what made Seto feel the worst, was his reflection in the perfectly polished doors. Sunken cheeks and shoulders grotesquely visible, Seto was a mere walking bag of bones with hardly any meat. In the two years he spent in his VR pod, his body withered away into a skeleton. The sight of his greying skin and eyes that showed no life, caused Seto to believe if he spent any longer in that pod, he’d be dead.

_Mokuba..._

Seto needed to get out as fast as he could. He didn’t want this to be his reality anymore. He needed to live, he needed to be with Mokuba. Finally, as the screeching came to a sudden halt and the gravity of the situation enveloped him into a hug, the chair finally made it to the bottom. Slowly but surely, pressurized air released and decelerated the chair before it crashed Seto back into the afterlife he was so desperately trying to get away from. Straining against his own body, Seto pulled himself out of the chair and back to his feet in that small cylinder elevator. He was going to let himself fall out of the door, except when the door finally opened, there was a figure waiting for him with big eyes, tears ready to burst through any wall they built in the two years he was alone. 

"Hey..." There he was, just how Seto imagined him to be at this age. Once a boy, who is no longer such, now stood only some odd inches below him, rather than a few feet. His brother after two years, was almost unrecognizable, except for the deep blue eyes that reflected the light like the ocean. The round face that used to look up at Seto and encouraged him to be the best he could be, had slimmed out and Mokuba was growing into the dashing young man Seto was afraid he’d become. Even Mokuba’s voice had changed into a baritone and the memories of him calling out to Seto, were melting away.

"Mokuba...?" Seto struggled against the opened elevator door frame as he kept himself upwards. There was nothing left in him, but he didn’t want to break his eyes away as Mokuba nodded in response. Seto could only gawk at him, as if a ghost cursed his vision with a trick. "You... got tall..."

Laughing was Mokuba’s only response as he wiped at his eyes with the back of his dress shirt sleeve, hiding away all the breaking tears that finally fell upon his cheeks. Taking a shaky step forward, Mokuba wrapped his arms under Seto's shoulders. Pulling his big brother into a hug that wanted to crush Seto with the force of all the love Mokuba wanted to give.

                                                              ** _"Welcome home."_**

 

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER;  
> • Original Characters made by Takahashi are his own. However, content and the idea of this written story for these characters is my own. The use of these character are stricly for entertainment purposes - I do not wish to exploit off the story as it would be wrong in doing so.  
> • I am not here for your approval. I am not here to hear your opinions. If you do not like my content, please don't waste your breath trying to tell me otherwise. I don't care - I never will. My ideas are my own and the way I write will always be that, my own.


End file.
